Harry Reid's battle plan against Sharron Angle: Paint her as whackjob

Harry Reid's political operation in Nevada is quietly assembling a battle plan to take on Tea Partyer Sharron Angle in the general election, presuming she beats Sue Lowden in today's GOP primary.

The strategy: Use her own words to paint her as, well, a complete whackjob. Sound familiar? That's what ground up Lowden in the wake of the chickens-for-checkups gaffe.

Exhibit A: An interview Angle gave in which she suggested she favors outlawing alcohol and supports legislating morality. This, in Nevada.

In an interview with Liberty Watch magazine, Angle expressed her opposition to legalizing marijuana, and added: "I feel the same about legalizing alcohol."

"The effect on society is so great that I'm just not a real proponent of legalizing any drug or encouraging any drug abuse," Angle said. "I'm elected by the people to protect, and I think that law should protect."

Asked whether legislating morality is appropriate, she added: "I don't think you can get away from that; people just make value judgments. We're not a neutral society. Politics, especially, are not neutral and no one can come to the table value-less or moral-less."

Reid allies will point out the absurdity of someone who wants to represent Nevada appearing to oppose legal alcohol and to support legislating morality.

Reid aides also plan to aggressively highlight an interview Angle gave in which she conceded she's so conservative that even Republicans call her "wacky."

And they will point to Angle's support for a prison drug rehabilitation program that involves massages and saunas and is based on an idea pushed by the Church of Scientology.

Reid's operation, with a big assist from Lowden, managed to turn an offhand remark about chickens into a six-week story. They think they have far more to work with in Angle's own words, which explains why they believe an Angle victory tonight would give Reid a far better chance of holding his seat.

OT: I don't have means to link (sitting in an airport with my phone) but would dearly love to see the Plumline response to several article links over at NRO on research that shows that conservatives are vastly more economically literate than liberals.

Ethan's and rukidding's heads will surely explode. But facts are facts.

That's a sound strategy but at some point Harry Reid is going to have to give the people of Nevada a reason to vote FOR him. Diminishing Lowden in a primary works because there are only two choices and people are going to vote. But in a general even if he gets Angle's numbers down if he can't get Dems motivated to come out to the polls he still loses.

Just curious why those economically savvy conservatives didn't let the rest of us know about the 8 trillion dollar housing bubble building up from 2000-2008. I know they were right on top of the hyperleveraged trading that wall st investment firms were doing. I am sure that they are as skilled as the conservative foreign policy experts that said we should invade Iraq to punish Al Qaeda for 911.

Thanks for the 538 link, Bernie. He pretty much destroyed the study. Sorry Scott and QB....

"They took a survey using one of Zogby's internet panels, which is by far the worst polling instrument that they could have selected. The panel was not weighted and was not in balance. For example, McCain led Obama 49-43 among respondents to the survey, even though roughly the opposite outcome was observed in the actual election -- and only about 4 percent of the respondents were Hispanic and only 39 percent were female. Then they asked 16 "questions of basic economics", as the Journal's sub-head describes them, and arbitrarily included eight of them in their analysis but threw the other eight out."

"In an interview with Liberty Watch magazine, Angle expressed her opposition to legalizing marijuana, and added: "I feel the same about legalizing alcohol. "The effect on society is so great that I'm just not a real proponent of legalizing any drug or encouraging any drug abuse," Angle said. "I'm elected by the people to protect, and I think that law should protect." Asked whether legislating morality is appropriate, she added: "I don't think you can get away from that; people just make value judgments. We're not a neutral society. Politics, especially, are not neutral and no one can come to the table value-less or moral-less."

A staggering example of the GOP's selective pro-Nannystate, anti-liberty agenda. (The selections are determined by a Zogby poll of vote-eligible Republicans.) No doubt the Teabaggers and our resident "freedom-loving" GOPers will condemn her stance.

"As governor, Reagan also helped create the nation's first tailpipe emissions standards, signed an abortion-rights bill, and expanded Medi-Cal, the nation's largest Medicaid program (socialized medicine). Immigration, not surprisingly, has been pretty important in this year's gubernatorial primary, which also makes it worth mentioning that Reagan also backed an amnesty bill in 1986." http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

Joe Klein on Fred Barnes in the WSJ today and on modern conservativism...

"Barnes is peddling from an empty sack here--and, assuming an even rudimentary knowledge of the federal budget on his part, he knows it. The fact that the Journal would print such twaddle as opinion and not the utterly cynical propaganda that it is shows the marked disintegration of respect for coherent thought at that Temple of Right-Thinking. It would be nice to have an actual conversation about this stuff, but it just seems impossible."
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/06/08/rumors/#ixzz0qIbPp1Jp

"Vast underwater concentrations of oil sprawling for miles in the Gulf of Mexico from the damaged, crude-belching BP PLC well are unprecedented in "human history" and threaten to wreak havoc on marine life, a team of scientists said today, a finding confirmed for the first time by federal officials."

"Vast underwater concentrations of oil sprawling for miles in the Gulf of Mexico from the damaged, crude-belching BP PLC well are unprecedented in "human history" and threaten to wreak havoc on marine life, a team of scientists said today, a finding confirmed for the first time by federal officials."

Why then is Our Government (NOAA) saying this is no big deal? They are LYING to us! And meanwhile, it's back to Drill Baby Drill in the Gulf. Nothing to see here. WTF!?

Posted by: wbgonne | June 8, 2010 5:26 PM

....................

The only reason that I have been able to come up with, to explain how they are handling it is:

An Election Year. Trying to avoid giving the markets a reason to drive oil futures sky high. Remember the $4.00 a gallon period during the summer of 2008.

I think it may be all about keeping down prices at the pump, this summer and fall, leading into the elections. Also, the recovery appears to be very fragile, and a steep jump in fuel for transportation, could trigger a second recession.

It is hard to create good paying blue collar jobs, when all your consumer goods manufacturing jobs are now in other countries, and even when you stimulate consumer spending, all you are doing is sending more money overseas, and widening the trade gap.

I'm trying to think of some concrete GOP proposals that they can actually run on this fall....

- drill baby drill

- don't be so mean to racists

- have you hugged a torturer today?

- more war pleez

- Hulk mad at social studies textbooks. Hulk smash.

The GOPer's have been so busy dancing in the End Zone and pouring Champaign all over themselves about elections they think they're going to win this fall, that they've failed to notice that Americans still hate them. They'll win some seats back, the minority party always wins some seats back during the first mid term after a Prez election. But after all is said and done this fall, they'll still be the minority party in both chambers of Congress.

Thanks, Scott. I don't have means to chase the dead links right now -- long night in the airport it appears -- but find the paste from nate silver underwelming to say the least, and whatever Calvin tried to link looks completely off point.

The study just confirms what everyone knows: Liberals generally don't understand or just deny reality of basics like the law of supply and demand. If they did understand they wouldn't be liberals.

I mentioned this morning that in addition to Angle in NV, we have Taitz in CA. Republicans are really sweating it with this one. They're afraid she'll bring down the other two women by being on the same ticket. Imagine though a slow day at the plumline and all the fun we could have with these two.

Right you are Toon Town Lawyer; The Republicans who brought us two Global Economic Depressions, and both Bush One, and Bush Two left the economy in the ditch, but they really really really are economics gurus.

Not a single net job added in the USA during the eight year reign of terror, under Bush/Cheney, but they really have that economy thing down path. Right you are, Tune Town Lawyer.

My thoughts, Ethan, are that you are that judging from your agitation and short attention span you appear to be on meth or speed and as usual have nothing of substance to contribute.

On Angle I haven't read any links but doubt I am going out on a limb by assuming that you -- the collective you -- are again manufacturing a bogus issue out of nothing or next to nothing. I am confident about that because of your long track record of taking poorly phrased comments out of context and avoiding at all costs actually confronting ideas outside your narrow and and blindered mindset. Anything but actually confronting what any conservative actually stands for. You make a mockery of it all.

I'm still waiting, too, for your explanation of how the alleged fact that an unknown former deputy counsel beat his wife shows that conservatives have lost their minds.

The video highlights of Reid's whacked out statements, the times he voted "no" on his own legislation like a senile old goat and the changed it to "yes", the anti-military statements, his lies about jobs in a state with 14% unemployment, his pro-D.C. jobs mindset.

I"m not statistician, so I can't really comment on the methodology, but I will say that I don't understand why Silver complains about the weighting. Silver criticizes the fact that the poll included more McCain voters than Obama voters. I can see how that might matter if you were drawing conclusions about the population as a whole (particularly if Klein's thesis is true), but I don't see why that ought to invalidate conclusions about the two as distinct and separate populations.

Silver also complains that Klein "arbitrarily" excluded 8 of the 16 questions asked, but then himself points out that the subject of certain questions "are more like Zen meditations than matters of basic economics" (like "Does poverty cause crime", which was not in fact used by Klein) Apparently it didn't occur to him that perhaps Klein deliberately excluded them for precisely that reason.

Of the 8 questions actually used by Klein, Silver manages to critique only 2 of them, and I frankly don't think much of his critique. For instance, he claims that one, which states "A company with the largest market share is a monopoly" is confusing and poorly worded because having the largest market share is a necessary but not sufficient characteristic of a monopoly. I'm not at all sure why that should be confusing, but even if it is, it appears to have oddly confused liberals in far greater numbers than conservatives and libertarians. Go figure.

Anyway, as you suggest above, Klein's conclusions seem commonsensical to me, simply confirming my own experiences with liberals. They quite often either don't understand economics or they ignore what they know to be true because it doesn't easily reconcile with their ideological and political inclinations.

Reid didn't see the crash coming, either. He was in control of the Senate since 2006, and during the entire Bush presidency had the power to filibuster anything he wanted, including perhaps the Bush tax cuts. Instead, he let 12 of his Democrats vote for the tax cuts, and even more vote for the Iraq and Afghan Wars. Almost his entire caucus voted for No Child Left Behind. IOW, this is all Reid's fault.

Just curious why those economically savvy conservatives didn't let the rest of us know about the 8 trillion dollar housing bubble building up from 2000-2008. I know they were right on top of the hyperleveraged trading that wall st investment firms were doing. I am sure that they are as skilled as the conservative foreign policy experts that said we should invade Iraq to punish Al Qaeda for 911.

Just curious, the democratic majority has held the house of representatives with House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi since 2006 and the senate is also the democratic majority...Do you honestly believe the conservatives are responsible for the housing crisis? What is their responsibility in our nation's financial fiasco? Nice try, though....

Having now been able to read Nate Silver's "critique" of the Klein study, I indeed find it weak if not meaningless. Reading it, I came to exactly the same conclusions as Scott above.

I would guess that the reason Silver doesn't explain his complaint about lack of weighting and balance is that the complaints have no real substance. Since the results are grouped based on self-identified political viewpoint, it makes no difference.

Silver's complaint that the question about minimum wages is subject to controversy is just plain wrong, as one commenter there points out. He doesn't explain and I suspect can't really explain why his complaints that some questions are poorly worded or confusing matters, unless it is that conservatives are better readers than liberals, putting them at an unfair advantage.

It's a very useful type of study, because it shows why it is next to impossible to have a reasoned discussion with liberals about economics in a forum like this. It is possible to have a reasoned debate about whether a minimum wage is a good idea, but not with someone who denies the reality that minimum wages increase unemployment.

A study like this puts the lie to the claims of commenters like rukidding that liberals are economically informed and literate and conservatives aren't.

The truth is exactly the opposite, as people like me have always said. Silver's weak critique doesn't lay a finger on the study. Could it be better? Probably. Almost any study could be. But it doesn't have to be perfect to be persuasive.

Just curious, the democratic majority has held the house of representatives with House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi since 2006 and the senate is also the democratic majority...Do you honestly believe the conservatives are responsible for the housing crisis? What is their responsibility in our nation's financial fiasco? Nice try, though....

Yeah, the real whackjob is the guy is the guy who proclaimed about the Surge in Iraq "The War is over, and we lost." Harry Reid is the biggest loser the libtard left could proclaim as its leader and the shoe fits almost exactly.

Gotta say, the liberals commenting here have basically nothing new to say.

Nancy Pelosi assured us that elections matter. Harry Reid is facing a tough campaign, as well he should. If all the liberals have is over reaction to public musings about the law they are in trouble. I suspect that they know this.

It is all about energy and the Democrats just don't seem to have it. A clear indication of the inability of the typical Democrat approach is the result in Alabama. Some white house staffer is alledged to have said that the union poured 10 million down a rat hole. I sincerly doubt that union money will matter much in most elections now.

so all the clamoring here is just distraction. The fact is that the Republicans are surging now and the liberals are seeing their shot at dystopia slipping away.

I'd like to respond to this piece of ignorance:
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Just curious why those economically savvy conservatives didn't let the rest of us know about the 8 trillion dollar housing bubble building up from 2000-2008. I know they were right on top of the hyperleveraged trading that wall st investment firms were doing. I am sure that they are as skilled as the conservative foreign policy experts that said we should invade Iraq to punish Al Qaeda for 911.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'm going to charitable as assume that the author of the above was doing the old rip van winkle during the house hearings on Fannie and Freddie.

here's link to a disgusting charade put on by the Democrats in congress. Watch the CBC members rally to Franklin Raines while insulting the federal regulator. Meanwhile Frankie Raines was cooking the books to enrich himself.

Democrats own the failure of the housing bubble. No doubt the author of the comment I copied isn't aware of Barney Franks' famous "Shibboleth" speech.

Here's the whole gang on a single video:
http://dailyradar.com/beltwayblips/video/what_just_happened_1/

The simple fact is the government spawned this problem and then failed to rein it in. The Democrats own this lock, stock and barrel. the above comment is just another example of the liberals use of the big lie technique

Sharon Angle does NOT need to be PAINTED as ANYTHING, for SHE can be a NUTcase on HER OWN RECORD;

Angle wants to do away with Social Security, the EPA, The Dept. of Education, and the Dept. of Energy.
Angle want to make all liquor illegal.
Angle was voted the worst legislator in NV two years in a row.

it ALSO turns out that "Ms. Tea Party darling Sharon Angle" is living off of a FEDERAL PENSION while her HUSBAND is the BIGGEST LAND BARON in NEVADA!

Well, well, well, so much for that "Small government, and pull yourself up by YOUR OWN bootstraps "THINGY"

Kinda blows a WAY HUGE hole into that "Grass roots" claim!

Oh well, many have known from the START that the "Tea Party movement" was a SCAM run by a BIG WHEEL INSIDER CORPORATE LOBBYIST by the name of DICK Armey!